'Pretty Little Liars' Recap: 'EscApe From New York'

On the season five premiere of Pretty Little Liars, A was revealed, the girls tried to escape from New York and Ezra fought for his life.

Pretty Little Liars is back! This episode did not disappoint. But, let's be honest here, any episode of Pretty Little Liars is better than that long break between seasons!

The episode began where last season left off. A shot Ezra and he’s in bad shape. As he’s being toted away in an ambulance, Alison sees A on top of it and Noel plays dumb with the police. Aria wants to go with Ezra but the girls hold her back because they know that she won’t get to go because they will take her to the police station to answer questions.

As Ezra prepares to go into surgery, the girls make a plan to catch A and wait for Ezra to wake up and tell them who he thinks A is. Because the girls never learn from their mistakes, they decide to split up.

Cut to Rosewood, where the Hastings family are at home. Ashley calls Veronica and they decide to stay in contact until the girls come back home. Melissa asks how long Spencer knew Alison was alive. Veronica guessed that Spencer found out and then started using drugs again. Melissa says that she blames Alison for all of Spencer’s problems. She begins to tell her mother the secret that she has but Detective Holbrook arrives. He tells them that Cece has escaped and that Spencer is in even more danger.

Mona, seeing that the girls have been reported missing, calls someone and says that “this changes everything.” Side note, I’m SO TIRED of Mona being good then being bad, then being good. The writers seem to change Mona up at every turn just to add more drama. She needs to pick a side.

Back in New York, Aria and Ali are headed toward the hospital. Ali says that Ezra came to New York to protect her and that he’s trying to win Aria back. Ali is wondering if Ezra has a chance to win her back. Aria can’t answer because she doesn’t even know if Ezra is going to live.

Spencer, Hanna and Emily make it to the hospital first. They sit in the waiting room and pretend to read newspapers while looking for A. Aria and Ali go to the nurse and ask her about Ezra.

A wonders the hospital, making me question the security of that hospital. I mean, someone in black sweats and gloves going around without being questioned? And then a lab coat just sitting in a room for anyone to grab? Have they seen Grey’s Anatomy? A can’t approach Ezra’s room because there are cops there.

Alison DiLaurentis is paged over the loudspeaker and A follows her out. Ali runs away, being trailed by A. As she runs into a deserted playground, she runs into A. The hooded A creepily says, “wanna play?”

Before we can really freak out, Spencer, Hanna and Emily show up. They set A up. However, like always (it’s getting pretty old), A was one step ahead. Except this time, there is more than one A. They circle the girls. Before they can figure out who the hooded figures are, the NYPD breaks it all up.

In Rosewood, Mona gets info from the team in New York. She shares this info with Lucas. So Lucas is bad now?

In New York, the girls realize that they shouldn’t spend their night in the middle of the city. So, they head to a theater that is owned by an old friend of Alison’s. In the middle of a flashback, we find that the theater belongs to Ezra’s family and he took Alison there for a date before he knew that she was a 15-year-old girl.

The girls, minus Aria, raid the snack stand and prepare to have a sleepover. It’s clear that Alison missed a lot and that she felt uncomfortable. She snuck away to make a call but the girls know that she is hiding something. As all of the girls sleep, Alison slips away to meet Cece and Noel.

Ali gives Cece her passport and Cece says that she’s going to leave. When Ali sneaks back to the theater. Emily confronts her. She tells her that Cece was never read coat and that Cece had protected her and them. Emily says that she doesn’t want Alison to harbor any more secrets.

Back at the hospital, Aria sees Shana. She says that Alison sent her to watch over Aria. She says that she’ll wake Aria if there is any news about Ezra. So, Aria sleeps. She wakes up to find Shana gone. She goes into Ezra’s room to find Shana standing over him. As Aria walks in, Ezra opens his eyes, freaks out and there is a code blue.

Back in Rosewood, Holbrook is looking into Fitz. He finds that he is related to the Fitzgerald family and owns a theater in New York. He calls the theater (more on that later).

With Mona, she has built a little Ali-hating army. It is like that scene in Animal Farm. Tired of feeling like a loser, Mona is going to make Ali seem like the loser. Hating what Alison did to her, Mona is going to do the same thing. Surprisingly/not surprisingly, Paige has been invited to join the team. Paige says that she doesn’t want to be part of it. Mona reminds her that Alison broke her and Emily up and that Alison used to call Paige Pigskin. As Paige begins to leave, Melissa Hastings shows up.

As Alison and the girls try to call Aria at the hospital, the call gets cut off. When the phone rings again, it isn’t Aria. It’s Holbrook. The girls say that Alison should leave now but she says that she gave her passport to Cece. The girls then talk about how Alison is keeping secrets and that they don’t like it.

Aria heads back to Ezra’s bedside to find that Shana is the one that shot Ezra and is A. Aria runs to warn her friends.

Back at the theater, Shana showed up with a gun. Alison tries to calm Shana and understand why she’s doing it. Hanna compares Shana to Mona. Alison finds out that Shana fell for Jenna and she is trying to get justice for her.

Time out. Who tried to kill Jenna last season? Remember, they found her body in a lake! Shana/Big A/whomever she is didn’t do it. Did Mona do it? Alison?

As Shana prepares to kill Alison, Aria shows up and hits Shana over the head. She falls off the stage and dies. I guess instead of “break a leg,” Shana broke her head. Aria believes that it is all over. Please, Pretty Little Liars was renewed for two more seasons. We won’t know the full truth until 2017.

What did you think of this episode of Pretty Little Liars?